A former client manager with the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) has received a suspended death sentence for embezzling 11.6 million yuan (US$1.5 million) of social security funds, according to a court in east China's Shandong Province.

 

Jin Enhe, former client manager with the ABC's Ningyang County Branch, Shandong Province, was convicted of misappropriating social security funds of government and corporate employees between June 2002 and June 2006, according to the Tai'an Intermediate People's Court.

 

He embezzled money on 31 occasions by destroying checks and fabricating payment acknowledgements when he was in charge of the bank's social security fund accounts, the court said.

 

Jin was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. All his personal property was confiscated.

 

He returned 1.9 million yuan before the trial began. Police recovered a further 1.5 million yuan, but more than 8 million yuan has yet to be accounted for.

 

Jin was arrested in September last year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2007)